Claudia — Page 850

My Kingdom for some Oil

January 7, 2018 at 10:40 am by Claudia

The subzero saga continues.

We ordered more oil on Friday. But it wasn’t going to get delivered until the end of next week.

Meanwhile, I urged Don to check to see how much heating oil we had left a couple of times to no avail. I can’t really fault him; I am also perfectly capable of checking on the level and didn’t. Anyway, I was reading someone’s Instagram account and they’d run out of oil yesterday, earlier than their scheduled delivery, due to the relentless cold temps causing our oil burners to use a lot more oil than usual.

When Don came home after running some errands, he announced he was checking the oil because he had just talked to a guy who had also run out.

He came back and said we had less than an eighth of a tank left – actually, about a sixteenth. Yikes. He immediately called the emergency number and told them we needed it STAT. But STAT won’t be until sometime today. So we turned down the thermostat, bundled ourselves up in layers, and I found my fingerless gloves.

Don snuck in this photo of me in a baggy sweatshirt, wool cap, fingerless gloves, dinner tray on my lap and bundled up in a throw:

He keeps calling me Apple Annie, after that Damon Runyon character who was immortalized by Bette Davis in the movie Pocketful of Miracles. This morning, I’m in much the same attire, only the sweatshirt is over flannel pajamas.

The good news: we still have heat. We just don’t know how long it will be before the oil is delivered today. These guys are working around the clock. There have been hundreds of emergency calls as no one was prepared for this relentless onslaught of subzero temperatures with dangerous wind chills.

One more day, and it will start to gradually warm up. Last night it went down to -12 with wind chills taking it down even more. Today, it’s very sunny and we’ll hit a balmy 18 degrees! Tomorrow, even warmer.

Yikes.

The obligatory greenery. Some new growth on the schefflera.

I’ll be very happy when we don’t have to run drips all day long. I don’t mind doing it at night, but hearing them all day long, forever adjusting the stream, making sure we didn’t accidentally turn off the water? I’m over it.

Happy Sunday.

A Cold Saturday

January 6, 2018 at 10:29 am by Claudia

Don’t ask how cold it is here. Just don’t ask. I feel like I should be wearing fingerless gloves at the moment. I know I have a pair somewhere. Since tomorrow morning will be even colder, I’ll have to find them.

Don and I feel like we’re trapped in a research station in Antarctica. Or a biosphere.

I did manage to escape for a few hours yesterday and drove to the bookstore. But along the way, my tire pressure warning light went on, so yours truly was out there in below zero wind chills trying to add enough air to my rear tires so the warning light would go out. It is impossible to do that with gloves on. Trust me. It eventually went off and I spent a bit of time at Barnes & Noble (being taken over more and more by children’s toys and educational items, plus weird Manga stuff.) Somewhere in the midst of all of that, there are still actual books. It’s not my preferred bookstore, but you take what you can get.

A closer view of the flowers on the sansevieria. They are so fragrant! Don loves them.

One of the rubber plant leaves is starting to open. This is my first experience with a rubber plant and its new growth, so I’m enjoying the unveiling.

Thank you houseplants for giving me something to do, to nurture, and to observe during these winter months.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I haven’t done a book review in a while. As with some other changes, it just seems to be happening naturally at this point in my life. That’s not to say I won’t do more in the future, I’m sure I will, but the sheer amount of deadline-type reading I had to do for the book blog and for the reviews on this blog was too much.

I also think a good book review takes time and care. I see some book ‘reviews’ on blogs that consist of the publisher’s blurb that gives you a hint of the plot, followed by an “I liked it, I loved it, or I didn’t like it” and that’s it. That’s not a review. That’s a thumbs up or down, more suited to Amazon or Goodreads, and it isn’t the way I write/wrote my reviews.

Anyway, I seem to be at a point with this blog, as I’ve said before, where I’m happy with what it is, where I’m not trying to make it into anything other than what it is, and where anything that involves a deadline or trying to make more money off the blog or feels like a drain on my energy is being phased out. And it’s all happening naturally. The only thing I made a conscious decision about was the deletion of my book blog.

I’m coming up on 10 years of blogging on February 17th. Ten years! And I think I’ve distilled the blog down to its essence, which is a good place to be as I prepare to celebrate that ‘birth’ day.

Last night’s sunset.

The view from the kitchen was even more Maxfield Parrish-like:

If we’re going to be in this awful cold, it’s the least that Mother Nature can do for us.

Happy Saturday.

Snow: Shoveling, Snowblowing, Baking & UPS

January 5, 2018 at 9:01 am by Claudia

This says it all. We had a heck of a snowstorm yesterday, with wind and lots of snow. I guesstimate it at 8 inches. It fell all day long and we couldn’t get out to shovel until around 3:30. The snowblower was hauled out of the shed and while my newest batch of linzer cookies was cooling, I grabbed a shovel.

We were out there for a long time.

And today, our aches and pains attest to it. Thank goodness, the snow wasn’t the heavy, wet variety. That certainly helped. Now we have to contend with high winds and dangerous wind chills for the next two days, with the nighttime temps going down to well below zero.

Winter officially came on December 21st, but here at the cottage it feels like it’s been going on for months. I’m over it.

But, speaking of ‘over it’ I shared a little story on Instagram yesterday. For those of you who don’t do IG, let me share it again.

I was expecting a package from UPS, but since the snow was falling heavily and the visibility was bad, I expected it would arrive today instead. I was in a not-very-great mood, having had my fill of subzero temps and snow. I was sitting in the den when I heard the UPS truck stop on the street with a little tap of the horn. I couldn’t believe they were actually delivering! So I threw on my jacket (I was still in my flannel pjs) and went out on the porch to meet the driver. He jumped over the culvert, ran up the lawn to the porch and greeted me with a smile.

I said, “I can’t believe you’re out in this!”

And he said, with another big grin, “Oh, it’s okay! I’m having an adventure!”

He was so cheery and so positive that my mood changed instantly. What did I have to complain about, right? If he could be positive, so could I. The universe sends you teachers when you need them.

See that great smile! He’d also grabbed a ride with a snowplow at some point during his day so he could get back to his truck after having parked on a hill. He was having an adventure.

I moved this lamp, which, for some reason, had been stashed on my bookcase in the bedroom, down to this little table/stool by the sofa. I think I thought there was trouble with the cord, but when I changed the light bulb, it worked. I love these lamps and Don needed a little bit more light by his preferred daytime seating. Plus…the shade!!